Session 4 — the grave fight
Emil’s grave on the headland, at night · only if the party go to Isa or the grave
At a glance
- Who
- Quiet Jory, Sai’s knife (×1). Hired labourers who run. Isa Varga, fighting on the party’s side. Four characters at 4th level.
- How long
- ~30 minutes. The seal sets the pace: three rounds.
- How it ends
- Jory leaves with the sealed cask, flees, or falls.
- The one rule
- An empty cask sits on Emil’s open coffin, drawing his soul in. It seals at the end of round 3 unless someone knocks it off the coffin.
This page holds the grave fight’s numbers. The session 4 sheet links here. No read-alouds are written yet.
The roster
Jory Vance, called Quiet Jory
Quiet Jory, Sai’s knife
Reskin of the Assassin (MM) · Medium humanoid (human), any non-good alignment · no house tweaks
Saving Throws Dex +6, Int +4 · Skills Acrobatics +6, Deception +3, Perception +3, Stealth +9 · Damage Resistances poison · Senses passive Perception 13
Assassinate. During his first turn, advantage on attack rolls against any creature that hasn’t taken a turn. Any hit against a surprised creature is a critical hit.
Evasion. On a Dexterity save for half damage, no damage on a success and half on a failure.
Sneak Attack (1/Turn). An extra 13 (4d6) damage when he hits with advantage, or when the target is within 5 ft of an ally of his that isn’t incapacitated and he doesn’t have disadvantage.
Actions
Multiattack. Two shortsword attacks.
Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage, and a DC 15 Constitution save, taking 24 (7d6) poison damage on a failure or half on a success.
Light Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 80/320 ft, one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage, and the same DC 15 Constitution save against 24 (7d6) poison.
- What he wants: the sealed cask. Once he has it, he leaves. He does not hunt the party.
- Who he goes for: whoever stands between him and the cask.
- When he stops: below 39 hit points he flees, with the cask if he has it.
Isa Varga
- A Commoner: AC 10, 4 hit points. She fights with her father’s cooper’s adze: +2 to hit, 2 (1d4) bludgeoning.
- She acts on initiative 10, and she is a target like anyone else. Any hit from Jory kills her.
- If she dies, it is permanent. The session 3 failure notes already say what that costs the arc.
The labourers
Hired men with shovels and a lantern. They run when the fight starts and are not in it.
The cask on the coffin
- An empty cask set on Emil’s open coffin, drawing his lingering soul in.
- It seals at the end of round 3. Anyone can knock it off the coffin with an action, no roll. Off the coffin, it draws nothing.
- Sealed, it holds Emil, and the cask rule applies. A Speaker’s rite frees him back to the grave. Fire bursts him, and his soul is destroyed. Slashing or anything else lets him out as a specter.
Scaling
The written roster: 3,900 XP × 1 for one creature = 3,900 adjusted. Deadly for four at 4th is 2,000, so this is 195% of Deadly, and Deadly under both the DMG and Improved Initiative. He deals about 40 a round to one target, enough to drop a 4th-level character in a round, against a party pool of 156. His pool is 78 and he leaves at 39.
One more character: 3,900 against a Deadly of 2,500 is 156%. Add one Thug to hold the line: 4,000 × 1.5 = 6,000 (240%).
The ceiling: if Emil is sealed and let out as a specter, it is 4,100 × 1.5 = 6,150 (307%). Isa is the real ceiling: she dies to one hit.
Environment
- Light. Night on the headland above the strand. The labourers’ lantern at the graveside. Out of sight of the town.
- Footing. Open grass. The open grave is a pit: anyone in it spends half their movement climbing out.
- Cover. The one stone gives half cover. Nothing else.
- Loose. Shovels, the lantern, the cask. A lantern thrown at a sealed cask is fire.
Environment prompt
Generate an image that is a D&D battle map in 16-bit pixel art, in the style of Chrono Trigger. A wide, zoomed-out overhead view of a large grassy headland above the sea at night. A single small gravestone beside an open grave near the center, a heap of dug earth, scattered rocks and low bushes, a cliff edge and dark water along one side. The grave and stone are small; open grass fills most of the map. No people. No grid lines, no text.
How it ends — on the åsan that stays
The fight is over the cask, not the body.
- They win. Jory flees or falls, and Emil is not on the route. They rebury him with Isa and tell her what they know. The åsan on the stone is still there in the morning, because the whole truth is not known yet.
- They half-win. The cask seals and Jory gets away with it. Emil is on the route, and act one’s grave needs him back first.
- Nobody made it. Not decided.